Editorial: The Trump administration’s attack on transgender existence

Marchers on Dolores Street during the annual Trans March in San Francisco, Calif. June 22, 2018. The Trump administration is considering defining gender as based on genitalia at birth.

Photo: Jessica Christian / The Chronicle

The Trump administration is considering legally defining gender as a category determined by one’s genitalia at birth, according to the New York Times.

This radical change would essentially yank federal recognition from the estimated 1.4 million Americans who recognize themselves as a gender other than the one they were born into.

It’s by far the most obvious attack on transgender people from an administration that has already made it clear it doesn’t appreciate their contributions to society. (The Trump administration has also tried to ban transgender people from serving in the military.)

It’s also intrusive (no one asked for the federal government’s opinion on their genitalia) and anti-science to boot.

The medical community interprets many aspects of an individual’s physiology beyond genitalia to determine their sex. (The Trump administration would only allow genetic testing.)

More Editorials

Some people are born with characteristics that don’t fit the typical definitions of male or female. These communities have spent decades educating society about the long-term harm they’ve experienced when doctors have assigned them a gender. Now they have to fear the government is doing the same thing.

The Trump administration’s consideration of a fixed gender definition will lead to infinite legal, medical and social problems for transgender and intersex people.

What it won’t do is force them out of existence. Transgender and intersex people have always been part of the human race, and none of the Trump administration’s cruelties will change that basic fact.

This commentary is from The Chronicle’s editorial board. We invite you to express your views in a letter to the editor. Please submit your letter via our online form: SFChronicle.com/letters.